Following an awfully slurred and drowsy start to the presidential debate , President Joe Biden seemed to finally wake up when he made a devastating joke on former President Donald Trump ‘s sexual history, taking a shot at his affair with Stormy Daniels . The response came after Trump accused Biden of having caused “deaths at the Southern border,” alleging that he “is a criminal .”
Biden: “You assulted women in public! You had sex with a pornstar while your wife was pregnant! You have the morals of an alleycat!” Trump: “I did not have sex with a pornstar.” #Debates2024 #CNNDebate #Biden2024
— Brad Reason (@BradReason) June 28, 2024
Biden looked at Trump in disgust, slamming his history, per The Daily Beast . “How many billions of dollars do you owe for molesting a woman in public? For doing a whole range of things?” Biden asked, referencing the E. Jean Carroll case, adding on a particularly devastating shot about Daniels. “Of having sex with a porn star on the night your wife was pregnant? What are you talking about? You have the morals of an alley cat.”
“YOU HAVE THE MORALS OF AN ALLEYCAT” Joe just won the debate.
— Lisa Guerrero 💃🏽 (@4lisaguerrero) June 28, 2024
When Biden brought up Daniels during his speech, Trump grinned, lowered his gaze, nodded, and then shook his head. He then responded by raising his hand, and again refuting Daniels’ account. Trump declared, “I didn’t have sex with a porn star.”
“morals of an alleycat” is a new one for sure pic.twitter.com/ADWWyv9R6X
— nessa⁷ (@btspixy) June 28, 2024
Biden was alluding to Stormy Daniel’s claims that she and Trump had a one-night stand in 2006, when Melania was supposedly pregnant, and Carroll’s allegations that the former president sexually assaulted her in a dressing room thirty years ago, for which he was found liable by a jury. In his Manhattan trial last month, Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of concealing a 2016 hush money payment he made to Daniels, becoming the first former president to be convicted of a felony.
Before Biden’s jab, Trump had attacked Hunter Biden, the president’s son, without reason after being questioned about how he would get revenge on his political rivals. Trump then made an unverified accusation that the president was a criminal. “Joe could be a convicted felon with all of the things that he’s done. He’s done horrible things. All of the death he’s caused at the border,” Trump said. “This man is a criminal. I had done nothing wrong. We have a system that is rigged and disgusting. I did nothing wrong,” Trump continued.
I wish the Biden Campaign had done to Trump what he did to Hillary when they debated in 2016. and invited @StormyDaniels to be a surrogate in the “spin room”.
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) June 27, 2024
While Biden’s performance in the debate was unimpressive generally, this specific exchange was the moment when he threw off his ivory tower style and entered the ring—a move many have believed is essential when facing a pugilist such as Trump. Trump, who fueled the Jan. 6 uprising, was asked three times if he would accept the election results if judicial challenges were exhausted. He declined to offer an equivocal response, per The Guardian.
The debate moderators, CNN’s Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, did not conduct any thorough or even basic fact-checking on either candidate. Trump mentioned “post-birth abortions,” which resulted in zero pushback from Biden or the moderators. Trump also accused Nancy Pelosi of turning down an opportunity to deploy the National Guard on January 6. No one objected when Trump labeled Biden a “Palestinian” as if it were a pejorative.